How Real Estate is Bought and Sold

The first meeting is to sign a contract to purchase the land.  During this meeting the Buyer and the Seller, your agent, the seller’s agent (if there is one) all meet in an attorney’s office.  The parties all have to exchange the ritual Costa Rican pleasantries.  Next comes a reading of the agreement to sell.  As required by Costa Rica law, the attorney must read the contract to the parties.  You will also receive a copy of the transaction.

If you use my suggested method, it will be an Option Contract that will be recorded against the property to protect your rights to buy. The deposit should be made in a bank that acts as an escrow agent and never left with the attorney like one might do in the US.  (Attorneys here do not have escrow accounts so your deposit will either go into their regular business account or some where else.) If you don’t use the Option Contract, you will most likely see your deposit quite literally handed over to the seller and, at that point, you can generally consider it gone.

After your attorney has completed the background check on the property and you have completed your part of the background search, you will schedule a date for the closing.

The closing will be similar to the original contract signing.  It will be held at an attorney’s office (hopefully yours) and the contract will be read aloud as before and the buyer and seller will sign the contract.

The sticky part will be the transfer of money. I suggest that you talk to the seller beforehand and have them open an account at your bank before the closing.  That way, all of you, including the attorneys, go to the bank to witness the transfer of funds.  If the seller doesn’t have an account at your bank, I suggest that they be paid with a “Gerency Checke” or management check which is similar to a cashiers check. Some old time stubborn sellers may actually insist on cash.  If this is the case, you need to arrange for that in advance with your bank.  Make them responsible for handling the cash.